


Blood Bond

by Writerperson78



Category: King of Fighters
Genre: Action, Battle Couple, Blood, Blood and Injury, Character Development, Comfort, Conversations, Cuddling, Established Relationship, F/M, Fight Scenes, Light Angst, Love Confessions, More like Shower Head, Mutual First Aid, Oral Sex, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating has indeed bumped up, Romance, Shower Sex, Travel, Violence, chapter 3 is the E chapter, minor OCs - Freeform, some gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:20:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27742153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writerperson78/pseuds/Writerperson78
Summary: Taking a break from their usual business in Europe, Adelheid Bernstein decides to take a trip to the USA to do a little research into something on his own spare time, inviting Whip, of course, to come along with him. Being free herself from some of the business of the Ikaris for awhile, they decide to take a week to unwind.Alas, there are people who perhaps have other ideas for the pair...
Relationships: Adelheid Bernstein/Seirah | Whip
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My profile has a brief rundown of the little series-that's-not-quite-a-series(because the stories can, mostly, stand on their own too), for those who wish to see what angle I come from with some of these. 
> 
> Rated fairly highly for the other two chapters. Still taking place a bit later in the XI-timeline. This is more of a side, personal story, btw; it deals very little with the actual King of Fighters tournament itself and is yet another character-exploration piece between the two of them.

“So what _is_ this trip about?” Whip asked, sitting in the airport with Adelheid. Both of them had large shoulder bags packed with their things, enough for the planned week-long trip. They would be flying overseas to the US, heading to New York, since apparently where Adelheid had to contact a few people was around that area. It was ostensibly a business trip, but Whip noticed he was being particularly secretive. She didn’t press him on it, however. 

“I just need to do a little bit of information gathering there. I suppose I could have done it from there with email, but in person it’s more secure. Besides...I like traveling in the winter and we have been sort of stuck in that one area for a long time. Rose hasn’t wanted to move since a bunch of her contacts are around there, now.” He frowned a moment, but then cheered back up some. “And I thought you might want to come.”

“Anything to get away from the recent stuff they dumped on me.” Lately she had been assigned the painstaking and boring task of tracking certain messages that Heidern had intercepted. Her eyes wanted to bleed by the end of the day. He agreed to her trip, though, since she had gotten a lot of good information for him and sped the painfully-slow mission up just a bit. She was rather good at intelligence operations and they knew this. 

Adelheid could have also sworn Heidern smiled faintly at him, but you could never be sure with the guarded commander. The truth was, the rest of her team hadn’t seen her so content in, well, forever, so they were happy that she had found something with Adelheid. 

Ralf and Clark liked occasionally taking him out to get drunk, too-as well as pressuring him to join up with a team in the tournament at some point. 

Even _K’_ of all people was-in his own way-apparently happy for her. She rarely spoke to him-once in awhile, and briefly, as he did not particularly like talking-but the last time she did, she decided to tell him about things, at least in a general sense. After some grumping, some vague threats toward the ‘spoiled bastard’ if he did anything stupid(he had never met him more than in passing), and a few grunts, he had later confided in Kula-who passed what he said along to Whip, of course-that he was glad that his big sister found ‘some hot, rich fighter to shack up with.’ 

Coming from K’, this was high praise.

“Yeah, it’ll be nice for both of us.” Adelheid certainly needed a break from all of the stuff he was dealing with between that weird cult-which is what it felt like Those from the Past were-and his family. They only even had one name to go on from them; Mukai. They didn’t even know who the rest of them were, but he suspected that was one of Rose’s contacts, and that was probably why she was acting the way she was...but he tried not to let it cloud his mind too much. 

Checking the flight schedule on the wall, she fiddled with her jacket. “I’ve flown business class most of the time, since that’s what we get with the military, but you got us the _luxury_ class, didn’t you?”

Adelheid grinned. “Of course.” 

“Don’t you have a private jet or something?”

“Sure,” he said. “But I sort of wanted to just…”

“Fly normally for once?” _As normal as the luxury class area is, anyway._

“I think so,” he said, smirking at her as he lounged in the seat; he had even opted to sit around in the normal area instead of the private lounge. He had the sleeves of his long-sleeve pullover hoodie rolled up over his large forearms. She didn’t often see him in something like that; he looked quite nice, as always, though she knew one of his favored muscle shirts were on underneath. He had packed his long jacket instead since it was unwieldy on a plane. He had also opted for his more ordinary, tall steel-toe combat boots instead of his usual iron-ringed, weighted monstrosities. She had opted for jeans, sneakers, and her brown jacket over a t-shirt; it felt nice to get out of her usual military outfit after having had to be in uniform for the past week. 

Hearing the call for the luxury-class travelers, they stood, along with a handful other rich-looking people. Despite Adelheid having access to a staggering level of resources, he and Whip probably looked the most dressed down in that group. 

Sighing and stretching upon reaching their seats, Adelheid stretched out his incredibly ample legs. "Legroom," he grinned. He hated the small seats. 

Chuckling and shaking her head, she moved to sit next to him; he had given her the window seat. There was no one in front of them for about three feet, and their seats were more like small booths. 

"Informing the commander that we ought to try to get these more often," Whip said before settling back, leaning on him as she liked to do. “I hope my bags are okay.”

“Yeah, you have your... _stuff_ in them, don’t you?” He was, of course, talking about her weapons, including her Desert Eagle. She was, of course, fully licensed, and it was going through checked luggage unloaded like they did, though he had chuckled to himself when he imagined what the inspectors must have thought when they found the whip in her possessions. 

She nodded. “Gotta come prepared.” Whip never left on long trips without her personal weaponry, a field first aid kit, and other odds and ends that could come in handy for an emergency.

He blinked for a moment. “Your…” he pointed at her earrings and motioned. “ _Those_ aren’t in there, are they?” His eyes widened a bit. 

Whip giggled. “They’re stable. Don’t worry.”

Now they widened more. “Are you _serious_ ?” he whispered. He was an easy flier-he _lived_ on an airship, after all- but there was something about the thought of her exploding earrings in the checked baggage that unsettled him. 

She stuck her tongue out at him and burst out laughing. “No, silly. I wouldn’t go _that_ far.” 

Having been teased, Adelheid snorted before he leaned forward to bite her shoulder playfully. She laughed at this as she started playing with his hair. 

The few other people in the luxury class who happened to look over wondered what they were getting into. 

\--

Having managed to plow through customs-Whip having all of her military identification and the like to facilitate that a bit faster, as well as the fact they were traveling in the luxury class-and collected their luggage, they had gotten a rental car from the airport to drive to the hotel. Adelheid could have afforded a limo, of course; but while he liked to fly in luxury class, Whip knew that he liked to sometimes get away from that. He mostly liked to drive to the hotel that Whip stayed at in Germany himself when they would meet there instead of the Sky Noah. 

They had checked into their suite and were now lounging about, rather jetlagged from the six hour time difference. Adelheid was sprawled on the bed staring at the ceiling; Whip walked over there as well to sit across his waist, one knee on either side of him. His eyes found hers and he smiled. 

“I think I just want to eat and sleep,” he said. “I haven’t gotten the message from the guy I’m supposed to meet here yet, so for now I just want to relax.” The coffee they had gotten on the way kept them going for awhile, but it was starting to wear off. 

“I’d be okay with that,” she smirked. She looked outside a moment, checking out some of the buildings across the way. “How many times have you been here?” she asked him.

“To the USA? Quite a few. We traveled everywhere in the world. I grew up on traveling vessels between the Black Noah and the Sky Noah,” he said. “I remember most of my life being somewhere new every month. Not that we really met many other people besides our direct circles.”

She nodded. “I only started traveling a bit later. After I escaped everything. But…” she trailed off. He immediately took both of her hands, interlocking fingers with her. He always knew how to make her feel better; she had always felt safe talking to him about her troubling thoughts of her past. 

“I know. But...it seems like you travel more with your group now.”

“Of course.”

“But yes...I remember we would go to Southtown sometimes. It’s an... _interesting_ place,” he chuckled. “I used to fight all the time there as a kid...Rose would always either start shit and then send me after them, or they’d want to test me thinking I was spoiled.” He smirked, rolling his eyes a bit. “I got used to it. It happened about everywhere we went.” 

Whip laughed softly while holding his hands. She knew that, through it all, he still cared about his little sister and wanted to protect her, and that it was forever a source of frustration that currently he wasn’t sure what was wrong, but he seemed to be taking things as well as he could. Glancing again out the window, she yawned. “It’s dark early now, thanks to the winter.”

“Yeah. I got us on the earliest flight we could, but still. Seven hours, and then by the time we got here…” he yawned himself, pulling Whip down suddenly so she was laying on top of him on the bed as he slid his arms around her. 

As they began to settle, nuzzling over to begin kissing, Adelheid’s phone buzzed. “Hm?” he said, scowling a bit as he hesitatingly broke off what they started. He checked it. “Huh. Email. From the guy I was supposed to be meeting with, apparently?” He rubbed his eyes. “I recognize the name.” He flipped it open to check it. Scanning the mail with his free hand still wrapped around Whip-stroking her hair gently, almost causing the young woman to want to drift off. "Last name of Reynolds. The guy I've been in touch with after I did a little research. Can you give me a minute on this?” he asked.

“Of course,” she said, kissing his neck once as she settled back down.

With one hand, he began writing back, allowing Whip to continue enjoying the comfort of his other hand stroking her. Her presence, gentle breathing and scent was making _him_ sleepy too, but he wanted to take care of this while he could.

Slowly finishing the email-it was a bit difficult one-handed, but he managed-he confirmed the plans the man suggested to meet with him tomorrow night at a sort of upscale place in the outskirts of the city, making sure that he would be able to take Whip. 

“We’re meeting at a place called the Raven Club, apparently,” he said, looking down. 

Whip was there, sleeping peacefully on him, her head still tucked up near his neck. She was completely out, not having heard him. 

Smiling softly, he kissed her, sliding his other arm around her again so they could nap off some of the jet lag in the very position the lay.

\--

There was a smell of snow in the air, though the cloud cover was not too heavy yet. A day had now passed since their arrival.

“Here’s the place,” Adelheid said, checking the GPS on his phone. “Raven Club.” He stretched. A nap, a big dinner and then a long night's sleep had helped adjust them; that morning they had attacked the hotel's giant buffet breakfast before wandering about awhile. They had gone back to the hotel for another nap and dinner before walking out to their destination, as the meeting was scheduled rather late at night. They figured the type of establishment it was, generally meant it wasn't open during the day.

“Looks pretty nice,” she said. It was, indeed, a very ‘gentleman’s club’ looking place, though it was a little more upscale. Getting buzzed in-Adelheid had been given a code-they walked past the entrance gate into a granite-floored yard, with some varied statues around and the like. Two bouncers stood at the door, though neither of them looked even half as built as Adelheid, Whip mused. They nodded, allowing them through and inside. 

“I have no idea why he wanted to meet here, but I suppose this is the best place for it if he insists.” He scratched his head, looking strange at the moment. There was a long, dim hallway that led to the club proper; they seemed to be descending into it. 

“Anything wrong?” she asked. 

“I...suddenly have a weird feeling about this. I didn’t before, but now, I do.” 

“Hm.” Adelheid’s instinct was quite keen, she knew. “You want to leave?”

“Nah. Let’s just get this done.” He started walking, until he found the booth near the back, where a man sat. He was of medium height and seemingly decently built; perhaps in his mid-forties, though he looked a bit younger due to taking care of himself. His medium-cut brown hair was combed back. He was fairly handsome, though nondescript. 

“Mr. Bernstein,” he said, offering his hand out. Adelheid shook it firmly. “And...the lady?”

Whip bowed. “Seirah,” she said. 

He nodded. “Matthew Reynolds,” he said, nodding to both of them and sitting down. He looked over at a young woman in a dress, waving her over. “Veronica,” he said, before looking back at Adelheid and Whip. “Would you like some drinks?” 

“No, thank you,” Adelheid replied. He wanted to stay sober tonight, he found. Both he and Whip caught an ever so _slight_ look of disappointment on Matthew’s face at this, causing both of their personal alarms to click up one more notch. While Matthew turned back toward Veronica, the two of them exchanged a quick glance and a nod; Whip stood after this. 

“I’m going to see the place a bit. It looks quite nice.”

“Please, make yourself at home,” Matthew said, his voice cordial. 

She stood, planning on moving about here to see if she could see if anything was off. There were other patrons around, seemingly unaffiliated; she didn’t think some of the couples that were milling about had anything to do with the man at the table with Adelheid. Deciding to step back some so she could better scan the area, she stood close to the bar to look around the place. 

Over at one end was the stage; complete with poles, though there was no show going on at the moment. There was the smell of scented candles in the air; around the bar they were burning some. _Vanilla_ , she thought. _Smells rather nice._ Checking out more of the areas, she noticed a few more men in suits milling about, one going over to chat with Matthew for a second before walking back. Another man stood nearby him, broad shouldered and perhaps five years younger. 

_Something isn’t right,_ she thought. The way some of these men were walking was a bit suspicious; she decided to start milling around to try something. Moving closer, she accidentally bumped into one, she stumbled back, reaching out clumsily to catch her fall, brushing against his suit. 

She felt something hard underneath of it, and was suddenly thankful she had gone there armed today herself. “Oh! Apologies,” she said. “I was distracted.” 

“No problem,” he said, eyeing her for a few moments before glancing over at the woman apparently called Veronica; catching this, Whip made her way over to that general area where she was. There were some stairs near the back that she started to head up; Whip, walking behind one of the patrons, glanced up at her as she walked, noticing something. 

Her stomach sank. She decided to go off to the restroom near the table where Adelheid and Matthew were still talking to check a few things on her to make sure everything was ready to go. 

She noticed the man looking at her as she walked in. 

Adelheid glanced back and forth, wondering what was going on. 

“Is anything wrong?” Matthew asked. 

“No, sir;” he answered politely. He had really gained nothing of info here at all; in fact, it seemed that this man had no idea what Adelheid was looking for. “I unfortunately think there was a bit of a misunderstanding; I was looking for someone else,” he said. 

Noticing a few people walking outside, Adelheid ended up with a slight gnawing in his stomach. He knew this feeling-his instinct was kicking in big time now, instinct he had picked up from years of dealing with unscrupulous types. There was something about the way they moved-and how they eyed him before they walked out-that didn’t sit well with him. And the fact his discussion with Matthew had really not gone anywhere useful in the end; it felt too far like a setup now. 

As he heard the door open off to the side, he saw Whip coming out, a concerned look on her face. She sat next to him again at the booth, leaning toward his ear. 

“The woman who went upstairs had a brace of throwing knives,” she whispered. It didn’t seem like anyone heard her but Adelheid. 

He nodded. The look he gave her told her all she needed to know. A few more of the men walked outside at this point. He quickly looked toward the door, and back at her, before raising his eyebrows. They could tell some of the people here were seemingly unaffiliated. 

Whip nodded herself, standing to walk over to the coatroom to grab their jackets. As she did this, he looked toward the man across from him, who had gotten done speaking with the other man to his left. 

“I think I have all I need, sir,” Adelheid said, not letting anything on. He held his hand out, and the other man shook it firmly once. “Thank you for your time. I suppose this was a misunderstanding.”

“Very well, then. I wished that we could have been some more help,” he replied, smiling a bit too broadly. 

_Oh, there’s definitely going to be problems tonight,_ he thought. 

Standing to put his long jacket on and helping Whip with hers, he bowed slightly as he walked out into the rather fancy looking smoking yard. He looked at Whip as he saw a bunch of the men that had left milling around outside. 

“I guess we caught on too late,” he said quietly to Whip.

“Seems so...enemies?”

“They aren’t our friends, that’s for sure. They found out about me coming here somehow. He set up the meaning pretending he was someone I actually wanted to meet with.”

“How?” she asked, as some of the men started over as others came out of the club behind them, some of them unsheathing a variety of sharp weapons. 

“That’s something we’ll have to find out later...I just don’t know.” The two turned around, seeing the rest of them standing there. The head honcho he had been speaking to in the bar had a long, jagged blade on him, and his right-hand man held twin katanas. 

The two bouncers went inside, locking the doors and disappearing into the darkness of the hallway. 

“You think you can still be a part of this world, kid?” the man sneered. 

“Just trying to look after my family.” _I knew it._

“You could have made so much more, though. How is cutting all those ties looking after your family?” 

“Cutting ties?” 

“At least a year ago. Said you didn’t want to work with the Four Rings again.” 

He shook his head, pushing back some of his hair. “Wait... _you_ guys.” His eyes narrowed.

“Yes, it’s us. We worked often with your father. Why did you cut things off? It was...lucrative for the both of us.”

“I don’t want to be involved with the filth you are.” Adelheid may have still dealt with some shady things, but he had cleaned up the family business quite a bit and tried to limit it to more... _reasonable_ shady things. These guys were more of his father’s types; into nasty things that Adelheid wanted no part of.

“You killed my partner, I know that much. We sent him to the Sky Noah to talk some months ago, and you killed him. You’re more like your old man than you think.” The man smiled. “They told me what happened to him. Head caved in like someone hit it with a sledge. Real _noble_.”

Adelheid snarled at the mention of his father. “Shut up.” _Trafficking scum. He deserved it. But how the fuck did they know about that night?_

“Did in his bodyguard, even. Took ‘em _how_ long to clean the blood n’ the rest of the bits out of the carpets? You’re _savage_ when you want to be, kid. I heard _all_ about it.” He grinned evilly. “I still think we could have something. You act nice most of the time, but you have that side to you. It’s in there. You just keep it buried.”

Whip could hear him almost growl. She gently took his hand for a moment to stroke it. His heavy breathing settled down. 

“You _try_ to act noble, but you’re a killer at heart.” 

“Only in self-defense,” he said coldly, glaring at the bared steel, as if to add _and you are giving me a damn good reason to do it right now._ He opened his jacket at this moment to give himself greater movement. It was cold, and he was wearing a sleeveless shirt again, but it’s not like it mattered. 

Whip pulled out Voodoo in one hand, and grabbed her loaded and ready Desert Eagle in another as they stood next to each other. Adelheid took his usual fighting stance. 

“Adelheid,” she said. “You usually enter tournaments solo.” She was clearly trying to get him to focus. 

He smirked a bit at that. “I’d say we’re ready to team up finally, maybe?” He swung his leg around, bringing his heel down onto the granite underneath of him. The ground crushed easily beneath the blow as he glared at the men in front of him. “Besides, this isn’t a tournament.” 

Whip snorted laughter at the crater he just made. “You _always_ have to show off like that?”

“Yes.” 

“Posturing?”

“Granite is harder than bone.” He smirked evilly. _If that doesn’t make them back off..._

Whip looked at the ground, and then back at them. _They brought his nasty side out now._ She knew-probably more than anyone at this point-that he was a good-hearted, noble and honorable man deep down, and that he didn’t _like_ killing, but his mean side would come out when it came to dispatching certain types, _especially_ ones like this, who were just as evil as his father...and who taunted him the worst way they could in the process. 

She spun her Desert Eagle once. “I better not see you get killed.”

“You neither,” he said, his red eyes fixed on the man in front of him-one of the henchmen-who, for some reason, between the _click_ of Whip’s gun, Adelheid’s casual showing off of his absurd strength and their near nonchalant banter showing that neither of them were in no way afraid of this lot, suddenly decided he would have liked to have been _anywhere_ but there. 

He sort of wished he hadn’t picked _this_ syndicate to try to join.


	2. Chapter 2

It may have been twelve against two, but when those two were the overpowered son of the four-years dead Rugal Bernstein and the NESTS-born, Ikari-trained armed whip expert, the opposition did _not_ particularly have the advantage. Still, they were armed, and they could surround them. A few sacrifices could be worth being able to bring them down through sheer attrition….or so they thought.

Adelheid would have _really_ liked to just have this night pass peacefully, going back to the hotel with Whip to enjoy the rest of their vacation, but alas, he was forced into extreme measures yet again. They seemed to follow him; they would not let him escape his father’s shadow that easily. If it wasn’t enemies, it was old allies mad he broke things off. If it wasn’t either of _them_ , it was weird cults hounding his family. 

_So be it._ If he could not leave his father’s path peacefully, he would leave it by force. He told himself the people he was removing from this mortal coil were terrible individuals anyway, and that he was making the world a better place by brutally kicking their heads in. 

It kicked off as Whip spotted a man reaching into his coat to pull something out; the Desert Eagle barked and the man was quickly put down with a shot to the chest...which caused a large red splatter to appear on the wall behind him. He stumbled back and slumped to the ground with nary a sound. 

And then all hell broke loose. 

Adelheid quickly dispatched the first man to run at him with one of his ferocious flying kicks; leaping forward while the man did caused the kick that connected with the side of his head to literally cave it in and snap his neck; this caused him to fly into the second man, who fell to the ground, only to be met with an axe kick as Adelheid didn’t miss a beat. Much like that time in the alley with Heidern, his head was split open.

 _Clean_ open would be a misnomer, as there was nothing clean about it.

With the fight only having just started and three of their side already dead-lying in pools of their own blood which steamed ominously from the cold granite into the winter air-the remaining nine scattered to try to surround them. 

Adelheid could hear both his father’s and his sister’s voices egging him on. _No_ , he told them. _They are evil. They are trying to kill us. I’m not trying to turn them into fucking statues._

A knife whizzed by Whip’s coat, slicing through it and reaching her arm. Hissing, she looked to see where it came from, only to see the woman she recognized from the bathroom heave another blade at Adelheid; it managed to slice his shoulder, though did not stick in. 

_Fuck_ , she thought to herself as she nimbly dodged another one. Her aim was not bad for everyone being on the move; she was going to have to neutralize this one quickly. Seeing Adelheid tangling with two men-one with a bat and one with a long knife-she decided to make her the main focus at the moment as she was better armed to deal with the long-range fighter. 

As she flung another knife, Whip cracked it right out of the air with Voodoo; the woman glowered, though looked a bit miffed like she didn’t expect it. 

Whip would try to aim the Desert Eagle, but the woman was good at pre-empting it; another knife whizzed by, clipping her other arm. Yet another knife-she was good enough to fling them with both hands-struck Adelheid high in the arm; he hissed in pain, causing him to step to the side, into the path of one of the other man’s blades, which tore up his front. Adelheid responded by grabbing the man's arm in one hand and whipping him to the other side, following up with a round kick to the back of his neck, shattering his spine and grounding him instantly. 

_Now_ Whip was starting to get mad at the woman, as she saw Adelheid rub his chest-his hand bloodied from doing so-trying to size up his next opponents. His adrenaline was running too high to even feel anything. 

The knife-throwing woman managed to deftly leap to a fire escape this time; having been hit with two knives-though one just a glancing blow-and seeing Adelheid take one, Whip about had her fill of this. Managing to jump up onto one of the statues, she brandished Voodoo again, though led with her Desert Eagle in hopes to outwit her.

It worked this time; seeing the flash of the large gun, she doubled back...right into Voodoo’s path, which coiled around her leg. One yank later, and the knife-thrower lost her balance, falling down the two stories onto the pavement below. 

The unmistakable cracking _thud_ , and the subsequent pool of blood from under her, told Whip that it was finally over. She leapt deftly back down from her high point to face the rest.

With five of their number dead, and both Adelheid and Whip only sporting a few injuries, the remaining seven had to think of something, and fast. The leader and his katana-wielding right hand man stood back, gauging everything; the right hand was standing more in front, protecting his boss. They seemed to be having trouble figuring out where to start, with the chaos of the others getting in the way; in addition, this was a test for a few of these men to see if they were even good enough to join. 

They had not expected these two to be as vicious together as they were.

Two men nodded to each other; after Whip had dealt with the knife-throwing woman, she had paused to gather herself and Adelheid had caught one coming up behind her with a knife; a bloody slash later and Whip was sporting a nasty slice along her collarbone...dangerously close to her neck. 

Hearing her cry of pain from the sudden and vicious attack from behind drove Adelheid into a madness that he had never felt; flying at the man-ignoring everything behind him, to barrel him to the ground. He kicked him in the face as he was down...though did not use full force. He did it again. And again. His face grew bloodier with each blow. 

This was worse than any time with the music, because he _knew_ what he was doing.

Adelheid finally stopped holding back-he could have ended it in a single blow if he had wanted to, but Whip’s painful yell and the stream of blood that had come from her did something to him. The kicks now turned into brutal stomps with his heavy boot-heel. 

By the time he was finished, even the ground beneath him was a cracked, red, sodden mess, steaming in the cold. One of the men who saw the look in his eyes in the shadows took a step back. 

Whip suddenly braced and pointed the Desert Eagle behind Adelheid; she fired, and the man-the one’s friend whom Adelheid had forgotten about for that moment, who had been about to plant his huge, jagged blade between Adel’s shoulder blades-lost a rather massive portion of his head as he-and the remains-tumbled down, further bloodying the ground. 

He looked at her with a slightly guilty look, realizing that he had lost himself, though she only nodded at him, understanding. 

Down to five, they started to get desperate. 

Whip went at one with Voodoo; cracking several times, she wrapped one around his leg, and pulled with all she could; managing to trip him up-the leverage even making him airborne at the moment-he flew up, only to meet one of Adelheid’s Genocide Cutters directly to the back of his head, killing him instantly in a spray of blood. Almost immediately following this, Whip had uncoiled Voodoo, sending it around another man’s neck; motioning downward to Adelheid, and pointing her eyes skyward, he understood what she wanted to do.

He lifted one of his legs-his left one, which was _slightly_ less messy at the moment, halfway up; she grasped onto his calf with one hand, and in one motion he leapt, kicking out to toss her over to the other side in one crescent motion; as he did this, she combined the force with a massive tug, breaking the man’s neck and sending him to the pavement before landing on her feet. She looked back at Adelheid with a smirk at that.

He returned it, winking at her. 

_That_ little maneuver caused one of the men to start to back off, only to be shoved back up by the right-hand man. 

That said, the final three were fairly skilled; they didn’t become the big dogs through weakness. Coming at them at once, they fought with long knives and the right-hand man had his katanas; all coming at them in a whirl of blades now-it was almost like the lesser skilled members of their lot had been holding them back, since they had to end up working around their clumsier strikes.

It was, at least, a valiant last effort. 

Both Adelheid and Whip tried to dodge the blows; they were mostly successful, but it was difficult due to the fact they were fighting more desperately. They took hits to their arms and torso mostly; Whip took a hit to her leg that caused her to buckle-it was a sweep that seemingly hurt her knee. She regained her balance, however, and the adrenaline of the two seemed to just make them ignore their wounds, which were starting to pile up. Adelheid took a strike to his nose from a backhand; Whip one to her lip, causing blood to run from both. 

Deciding to go after the leader, Whip started by dashing in to smack him across the face with the butt of Voodoo; his nose breaking from the sound, she dodged back to crack him several times with it; as he reeled from the strikes-which opened gaping wounds in his arms-she flew at him with a kick, jumping back again, and wrapped Voodoo around his neck. She looked at Adelheid. 

He took this as his signal to dash in himself, greeting him first to the chest once and the face twice with a ferocious kicking combo, causing more blood to fly with each strike. He fell, dead from either those blows or his shattered spine-or both. 

The right hand man-now the new boss, apparently-mused these two fought much better together than his group did, who mostly just got in each other's way. The little arena they had led them to was a mess, needless to say; these criminals had messed with the wrong people and died violently. 

He began to swing at both Adelheid and Whip, as the other man tried to escape to call for backup; preferably _heavily armed_ backup. 

As Adelheid dodged another blade blow, he spun to see Whip quickly fire her gun at the escaping man; hitting him squarely in the chest, it caused a rather grotesque splatter on the wall behind him as he stumbled back from the force. 

Seeing the right hand abandon his attack on him and run up to swing at her from behind, though, caused him to bring his hand up instinctively to block the blade; he grit his teeth as he felt it bite into his flesh. It was slightly tilted in a way that it didn’t go all the way in, but it was enough to prevent Whip from getting hit. 

The man jumped back, swinging the katana around; seeing Adelheid’s bloody hand caused her to snap out with her whip and wrap it around the man’s right arm; tugging, she forced him to stumble and drop the katana to the ground. Before he could try to pull Whip off balance with his weight, Adelheid brought his boot down onto the blade, shattering it. He was pretty sure Whip dislocated his elbow in the process, judging by the look on his face. 

Down to one sword and _clearly_ outmatched, everything almost happened at once. 

Whip tugged at Voodoo, dislodging it and almost pulling the man off balance; he stumbled, but still tried a clumsy slash toward Adelheid, who was closer.

Jumping back, he managed to dodge the right-hand man’s remaining katana; he led low with his leg to trip the man up. While he was very skilled in the use of his blade and had incredible balance, having shown this just now managing to keep his feet, he lacked the sheer brutal strength of the Orochi-touched young man; he was unable to keep his footing. Adelheid leapt backward, bringing his leg up and around, he brought it down in the terrifying heel strike that he would use against grounded opponents; the horrid, wet _crunching_ sound as his huge boot connected with his head rang out; the granite below also cracking from the force. He stood, panting, looking at the corpse as blood spewed from the terrible remains, the katana still in his tightened fist even in death. 

Whip placed her gun away, curling her whip up as she limped over to him; both of them had managed to collect a fair share of wounds. She looked down at the corpse before looking back up at Adelheid. 

“You certainly know how to end a fight,” she said, a bit of gallows humor coming out. She was not squeamish, thankfully. 

He looked over at her, snorting laughter before standing away from the mess. “I try not to start them unless it’s for sport. But...if they _insist_ …” he said, forgetting about his dripping hand for a moment before going to almost immediately examine her instead in the soft light. Using his non injured hand, he lifted her head to use his thumb to gently wipe away some of the blood from the corner of her lip. His deadly self-defense instinct had faded, replaced by his caring one. 

She smiled at this, her glove wiping away some of the blood from his face; most was not his own, though his nose bled some. She was more concerned about his hand. “That looks bad,” she said, looking at the gaping wound across his palm where he stopped the blade. “What possessed you to stop a blade with your _hand_?” she said, looking at him with a skeptical eyebrow raised. 

He shrugged-sheepishly, like he would sometimes around her, as if they hadn't gotten done taking out half of a criminal syndicate. “I guess I thought I was catching the flat. Besides, I use my legs more in a fight. And that blade was coming right for you.” 

Whip at that point looked a bit guilty; she did at that point fail to account for the fact he may go after her, since he was busy fighting Adel-they both did. She did snort some laughter, though-humor, even black humor, could get one through more harrowing things. Realizing they both came close to probably getting holes blown in them a few times during this, she suddenly kissed him where he stood; it was not long, but it was welcome to both of them. “Let’s get out of here. We need patching up. I think there’s a place where we can hide out.” 

Nodding, he rubbed his side where he took one of the nastier hits and held her hand with his good one; he supported her injured leg. “Can you walk alright?” he asked, concerned.

She nodded. “Probably best to not let it get stiff.” 

When they reached the seediest hotel they could find-one that lacked a typical front desk and you handled everything yourself, as to not raise questions-they quickly retired to a room. They had that nice suite-with all of their things, including Whip’s field kit-waiting for them at the hotel about a half hour walk away, and getting there using side streets and the like wouldn’t be a problem, but there was no way they could show up there until they cleaned themselves up considerably. Plus, their wounds needing looking after sooner than later.

Dropping his keycard on the table, he turned to see Whip looking at him. She motioned to his coat and shirt. “Take those off. I need to look at you,” she said. 

“I’m fine. It’s ju-”

“ _Off_ ,” she said, her eyebrow raising as she watched his hand ooze blood. “You were fighting the brunt of the worst ones and you know it. And you get closer than me.” His trousers and boots were fairly well covered in it, though most of that belonged to the enemy, she knew.

He nodded, sliding his longcoat off, as well as stripping off his rather sliced-up shirt. Whip put all of the lights on that she could and examined him, wincing a bit. She made sure all the curtains were shut. 

Sticky and drying blood caked his pale skin. His torso was covered with quite a few slashes, to be sure; some looked deep. One in his side looked particularly nasty; any worse, and he may have ended up losing more blood that was healthy, had he not been so robust. She grabbed all the towels she could to try to care for him; she also ran out to the hallway to grab the large first aid kit that was on the wall for emergencies-she was surprised this place was up to _any_ sort of building code-as she figured there would be disinfectant and bandages in it; thankfully, there were. There were hospitals, yes, but they didn’t want to raise too many questions. Authorities would be called, no doubt-even if they cleaned the opponents’ blood off of themselves...authorities who may well be bought off by certain other unsavory individuals to compound their troubles. 

“Stand near the sink,” she said. It was a bit old looking, but it would have to do; it looked clean at least, and she wiped it and the counters down with some of the disinfectant. “We’ll do this more properly when we get back to the suite.” She wet one towel with hot water and used what soap she could find for it; she started by gently washing all of his wounds with it. Like the rest of her group, she was at least trained in basic field medicine. 

“You’re more gentle than Ralf,” he said, smirking. They hurt some, to be sure, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle. 

She looked at him as he leaned against the counter, trying to bite back the pain from her own wounds. “I try,” she said, smiling softly. She didn’t want him to hurt any more than he probably was. She paused to wipe some of the dried blood from his nose, which had stopped bleeding. 

“You know I’m helping to take care of yours after this,” he said. 

“With your bad hand?” she said, pointing down at it. 

“I can handle it. It’s not that bad.” He flexed it. The wound across it was at least three inches long at a slight angle, and went down fairly deep; it oozed a bit more blood. Whip grit her teeth when she saw that. Shooting an opponent was one thing, and she didn’t blink at Adelheid’s more monstrous killing blows these days, but she couldn’t stand to see him hurt like that. 

“This should be stitched...but I don’t think we’ll be back in time to stitch anything up. It’s going to scar.”

“So will the rest of these. Doesn’t matter.” He chuckled. 

Whip smiled softly back, pausing to slide her coat off, which had a few slices on it as well. Her tank top underneath had some too, though some of the slashes had hit her bare arms instead; that came off too and she was down to her bra as Adelheid frowned at her wounds. She then went back to cleaning him gently with the sink full of hot, soapy water, before being satisfied they were all clean enough, including his hand. He hissed finally, however, when she began pouring disinfectant on them. 

“I wish we had some strong alcohol, like...now,” he said grimly. Being back in the US at the moment, he knew the Sky Noah was still stationed in Germany...and with it, most of their good stuff. “I’ll fly us home tomorrow...we’ll probably need to explain a few things.” He thought. “I could call Henrik to get us a private flight. Commercial...they might wonder what happened to us.”

“Yeah...too many injuries. We’ll probably raise too many questions.”

“I’ll get in touch with him tomorrow. We may need to just crash here tonight.”

She nodded, taking her knife, and after cleaning it, cut strips off of one of the towels to tie around the wounds that she could after she covered them in some of the disinfectant. Luckily one was long, so it was able to reach around his waist and chest; Adelheid was not a man with a small build by any stretch of the imagination, so she was wondering if that would work out. 

“These should be okay for your side,” she said. “Trying to spare what they gave us here for the smaller ones.” She began to wrap the rest of his wounds with the more proper ones.

“Save some for yourself,” he said. 

When she finished, he stood, flexing. “Thank you,” he said, before leaning forward to kiss her. 

Whip returned it, letting it linger a moment. Some of the smallest wounds were left open, but his worst ones were bandaged. She remembered the last time he ended up like this, and shook her head. She stood by the counter herself as she emptied the sink to refill it with fresh water to start anew. “Mine aren’t bad,” she said. Indeed, she had managed to dodge most of him. 

“You’re quick,” he smiled, as he took a clean towel himself. He was not particularly trained in this, but he could wash them for her at least and help with the harder to reach ones with some instruction. “This one doesn’t look good, though,” he said, pointing to the one on her collarbone. “Came far too close.” He’d kill that one again if he could. Adelheid-when he was in his right mind and not driven to his berserk rage-may not have enjoyed taking out enemies, but when he had that man on the ground after he had nearly slashed her throat, he relished every bloody stomp. It almost scared him. 

“I also know how to keep a distance,” she said. He could kick out the energy with his legs, she knew, but he seemed to like being right in there-not to mention errant blasts could cause collateral damage; they were useful at times though for sure. Her armaments were good for letting her keep away from her opponents and gain the advantage. "Lucky I had my gun for that other one."

Adelheid was now the one who looked a touch guilty. He had let the situation overcome him, he knew. He very gently cleaned the wound near her neck; while he was no expert, she was pleasantly surprised with how light his touch was. 

“But...let me say,” she added as he finished washing her wounds, going to pour disinfectant on the one on her back before he made sure her lip was okay. “While I have fought with many...my little brother, his friends, Ralf, Clark, Heidern, Leona...I can’t remember the last time I...felt so...connected. So _safe_ . In battle.” _You aren’t supposed to feel safe in battle_ , she thought to herself. _But next to you, I do._

He handed her the remaining bandages so she could take care of the ones on her arms and front, since he knew she would be better at it; he did, however, take care of the one on her back still, as well as her collarbone. “I always fought solo in tournaments. After this, though?” he said, gently finishing as he stood back to watch her. 

“Are you saying you’ll finally take a partner?” she smirked. 

“For fighting...yes.”

“Only for fighting?” 

He smirked at her as she finished, leaning against the wall. “I mean, what else do you _want_ me to say?” he said, an amused tone to his voice. 

Standing, she put everything down and gently pushed against him; mindful of his wounds, she slid her hands behind his head and kissed him rather fiercely; she did not even think about the pain in her own lip, or anywhere else. His own good hand going behind her head, he returned it. It felt like the stress, worry, and pain of the night was now falling off of them at once, and they stayed there, for a long time, before breaking it. 

Afterward, he kept his hand on the side of her head. "I am so sorry you ended up involved in all of my family problems. I was...trying to avoid this." He looked down, his mood changing with the breeze it felt like; his feelings started to churn again. It was a mix of the adrenaline, the night's slaughter, guilt, pain...and something more. 

"You think I didn't know the risk?" Whip replied, placing a hand under his chin. "I never _cared_ . You _have_ to realize that by now. I don't fear attacks. I know you don't, either." Her own emotions were a roller coaster right now, as well. "Just like with you, I too am no stranger to enemies."

"You know I will stand up there with you and fight every last one of yours. But do you really _want_ to invite more into your life?" Adelheid had grit his teeth. His emotions were almost at their limit. He had no idea what was happening with himself right now.

" _Yes_ !" Whip said, loudly. " _Yes_ . _I love you_ and I don't _care_ what or who comes with it. I will fight them with you. Every one." She didn't think the actual confession would come out at a time like this, but it did. A tear finally slid down her cheek. 

Adelheid blinked at her words, his own throat getting a lump in it. Instinctively, his finger slid up and brushed away the tear, trying to keep his own back. 

"Seirah...I love you too," he said, his voice breaking a bit. "You know I'll never let you fight your past alone, either." 

She looked up at him again, smiling softly. "I knew ever since I saw you looking into the NESTS info." She caressed the side of his face. "I knew you were hunting for some of them. I knew that’s what this whole trip was about in the first place. We just...ended up running into one of your problems by chance instead."

"You...knew?"

"I learned my intelligence gathering from Heidern, Adel. You think you could have hidden it forever? I’m trained in military intelligence. You might be stronger than almost anyone has a right to be and know how to deal with varied syndicates...but we know what to look for.” Her smile turned into a smirk. "When I found that out...that you were hunting for them on the side to help me...I think that's when I resolved to do the exact same for you. Even if it gets me in a bit of trouble.” She wondered what Heidern would have to say about all of this. Given he hadn’t tried to call yet...she suspected it was not going to be _too_ bad, but she _did_ expect a lecture on safety, at the very least. She put one hand on either side of his face, smiling sadly. “Adelheid, I knew you were trying to help me this whole time. And I thank you. So much.” 

Her words made him blink and look off to the side, and he raked his bandaged arm across his eyes, ostensibly to get some of the sting of the disinfectant smell out. He then pressed his forehead to hers as he would, gently cradling the back of her head with his good hand. 

“Let’s finish up,” she said, kissing him once. “We’ll figure out what to do from here.” 

Adelheid stood up again and laughed, scratching his head. "How messed up are we," he started, "When our first love confession comes in the bloody bathroom at a crappy hotel after we just got done murdering half of a syndicate?" 

Whip, too, laughed. "I think...we were both destined for something like this, let's face it. If it wasn't some of our enemies...it was going to be yours." She winced in pain as she moved wrong. His hands gently held her against him. 

Adelheid grimaced. "Any painkillers in that box?"

"Sadly not," she replied. "I'll manage." Giving him one last kiss, she walked slowly to the bed to lay back, her legs dangling off the edge. "We can get some when we get back. We...might need to look into how they knew we’d be here, though. Eventually. Not this second.” 

He nodded, pulling off his boots and trousers in the bathroom to clean them the best he could tomorrow, and sat next to her on the bed, looking down at her as she lay there. The wounds stung, for sure. It may be that as the adrenaline slowly wore off, the pain ended up getting a little worse. He could tell by the look on her face she was in a similar predicament. “I wish we had managed to get what I planned on getting by coming here. But...guess we were followed or something.”

“I noticed lately some of those recent deals had gone a bit...sideways.”

“Yeah. I probably should have known before leaving.” He rubbed at one of the bandages. “No one knew what I was looking for. All I know is that I booked the trip and came here, and ended up getting a message from that guy telling me that he had some things I needed.” He shrugged. “He was definitely tipped off.”

Whip nodded. “At least we cut off the head of this snake, as it were.” She watched him as he lay down on his good side, propping up on his arm to look at her. "We just need to find who spilled stuff to them." Shifting a bit again, she touched the comforter they were laying on. She made a face at how threadbare and kind of dirty it felt. 

"I'm not sure I even want to sleep under this blanket," he said. "I'm not sure if I trust it."

"This place is...not ideal, no," Whip agreed.

"We do have our things at the suite. If...we could make it back…"

Smirking, she also propped herself up the best she could. "We'd have to clean our clothes pretty well...but I can make it."

"I can carry you if need be."

"Not with that side wound."

"You're light."

"It'll reopen." She touched his mouth when he started to talk again. "I'll be fine," Whip said as she leaned forward to kiss him. "Let's clean our clothes quickly."

"Probably need to scrub the blood out of the bathroom, too…"

"Yeah. Though I'm pretty sure this place has seen worse."

Adelheid snorted laughter at that.

It took them the better part of two hours, but they finally got everything clean. Whip was luckier; while her outfit was brown and some of the blood did stand out, she didn’t have nearly as much on her as Adelheid, whose more up-close style combined with his crushing strikes tended to mangle enemies right in front of them. His clothing was dark enough, though, that it was _mostly_ able to be hidden. 

By the time they were finished, there was nothing to be done with the towels which they’d have to get rid of, but the room itself was clean and they were redressed in their damp clothing. In the direct light things looked suspect, but they could slip into their hotel without a problem. It’s not that they were _completely_ worried about trouble as they could take care of things, but at this point they wanted to avoid as much as possible. 

Looking outside, Adelheid laughed again. “It’s...snowing,” he said, a little surprised, though given it was winter he probably shouldn’t have been.

Joining him, she shook her head. “I usually like snow. Why now though?” They would be quite cold by the time they returned.

“I like it too...but yeah. Nothing to be done. Let’s get back.” 

Leaving the room behind and grabbing all of the bloodied towels, they slipped out of the place, left the keycard, dumped the towels in a dumpster and began their trek back to their nicer hotel. They wondered what was going on back at the Raven Club, which was clearly a hideout for unsavory types, but they weren't about to check.

Adelheid walked next to her, supporting her injured leg, both of their minds still racing with everything that had happened that night. They paused at one point to look up at the sky to watch some of the snow blow in front of the streetlights, letting the quiet of the city calm them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I regret none of these tag/combo attacks I had them do at *all.* Including when he launched her with his leg. 
> 
> Yeah coming up with combo attacks for these two was *fun*. Some of it I had even labbed out in KOF XI. Other stuff I just made up. Also, yeah, don’t let these two see each other get hurt, apparently. I don’t write fight scenes left and right anymore; mostly when they show up they’re rather short, but given the series is King of Fighters I decided to include a story that involves a more extended scene. 
> 
> I am pretty inspired by the manhua with the fight scenes; that and some of the more intense endings like Yagami Team ‘96 and New Faces Team ‘97. KoF has had its fair share of scary fights, even if it doesn’t go Mortal Kombat. The manhua get pretty brutal(though more maybe PG 13 to 15, depending.) I wanted to play the fight scene sort of like a darker version of Final Fight or something, where the bossier guys come out near the end. Also you might wonder how mooks can hurt them with knives-IRL when they discuss disarming someone with a knife-even the unarmed person is trained-most anyone will tell you that getting cut is inevitable. These guys were a couple steps above untrained; no true match for them but in numbers could cause a fair bit of pain.
> 
> Adelheid’s big heel stomp he uses against some people was actually lifted from the comics; he does it a few times in that and it’s strong enough to cave in entire steel floors. It almost seems like the comics meant that to be his version of the Dead End Screamer; I have to say the nice-guy son’s is a lot more brutal looking. Also in the comics he tends to try to aim a whole lot of nasty head-kicks at people to end fights. I suppose I can see why, once you see the intense damage he does to actual steel and concrete in those. 
> 
> Most importantly, though, besides fighting or anything else, at least these two finally told each other how they really felt. It doesn’t matter where it happens, but they deserved to know. 
> 
> (Also, how the hell did a random syndicate dude know about NESTS? Did he even, or was it a complete setup?)


	3. Chapter 3

Waking up in the far, _far_ nicer bed-luckily no longer bleeding too much at all through the bandages so they did not leave anything on the covers-the two of them had managed to get to sleep finally after taking a rather high dose of the over-the-counter painkillers that they had back in their bags. They didn't sleep very _well_ , but they slept, mostly out of sheer exhaustion at that point. They had fallen asleep in each other's arms, injuries be damned.

Whip was up first; she stretched, stiff and pretty damn sore, as she suspected. She had been injured in battle before. They had woken up a few times during the night-when one would, the other inevitably would-but they would manage to soothe one another back to sleep. After the night of high adrenaline, brutal battle, and somewhat painful injuries, their dreams-when they would come-were somewhat disturbing and fractured. 

She exhaled, waiting for the slight wave of pain to pass; it was a burning, throbbing feeling, particularly in the deeper cuts on her collarbone and back. Feeling Adelheid stir next to her, she watched as he rolled over on his back, his eyes opening sleepily. 

“Morning,” he said, sitting up on his arm. “Ow,” he grumped, his hand being the cause of most of his pain. “How do you feel?”

“A little sore,” she said, grimacing. She looked at his side. “I think I’ll get some better things from next door at the drugstore and do these all properly before we leave. We should shower these well too.”

"Yes. I'll make a few calls and get us a private flight back. Won’t be a problem, as you know. I wanted to stay longer, but...”

“Yeah, we may want to get back sooner than later.” She regretted having to cut the trip short. "For now...I think I just want to lay here a bit."

He nodded, his hand running down her side gently. He was leaning on his better arm, though used the fingers on his wrapped hand. She shivered at the feel, smiling for a second. Adelheid noticed the smile had a slight sly look to it. Cocking his head to the side, he looked at her questioningly. 

“You alright?” he asked. 

“Yeah…” she said. She leaned forward to slide her arms around him, pressing against him. They had both slept naked, as they always did now, so this felt _particularly_ good. 

Adelheid laughed softly, sliding his arms gently around her, a hand tracing up and down her leg.

After some time, Whip spoke up again. “You know...we ought to probably shower soon,” she said. “Better to get these clean sooner than later.” 

Getting her intent rather quickly-hearing the slight emphasis on the word _we_ -he smirked back before leaning down to kiss her thigh a few times, causing her to shiver. He sat back up, teasing under her chin with his finger before he turned to get up. Sliding out of bed, he winced a bit; he was feeling pretty decent, all told-he could fight again if need be-but he definitely got a little careless last night. 

Heading to the bathroom, they removed their makeshift bandages from the night before and Whip started the shower, getting it nice and hot. It was a rather large shower, attached to an even bigger tub; the bathroom was huge, given that it was a suite. Before they got in, she examined them; they still looked rather painful being only a day old, but they looked clean at least, which was the important thing. She would be able to tell better after they washed them some. 

Standing under the hot, steamy water felt absolutely heavenly for both of them after everything. They stood there silently, letting the shower run onto both of them-wetting their hair and washing the remnants of the night before off of them properly. They added some soap, which was the hotel’s fancier brand, and it had a pleasant, mild scent which relaxed them almost completely.

After a few moments of proper washing, Whip decided to look at Adelheid first. “Let me see you again,” she said, making sure the light was on in the shower.

The wounds definitely looked sore still, but she did not see any tell-tale redness appearing around any of them; that was mostly what she was looking for, so she was relieved. She was doing fine, too; an examination of her own-him checking the one on her back and collarbone as he would-showed them looking clean so far as well. They weren’t out of the woods yet and would have to keep them clean, but so far, so good. 

Relieved that they seemed to be doing okay after the first night at least, she mentally thought how she’d have to hit up some more supplies downstairs, though she had a few bandages in the field kit that she insisted on always carrying. Enough to get herself fixed up to get what they needed, in any case. Wincing in pain as she moved suddenly, she looked up at Adelheid...and smiled. 

He leaned forward to kiss her deeply; mindful where he put his hands. One gently held the side of her face as his kiss took on a hungry feel; being in the shower together, _especially_ after everything, made them both feel rather nice in spite of it all.

Whip returned it, her own hand sliding down his leg. They had remained uninjured, she noticed, so she gave them some rather firm strokes as they stood there, until she reached a hand around to his rear. His breathing became heavier as they kissed; _somehow_ , they both started forgetting about any pain they may have been in. 

Pulling away finally, she sat down on one of the ledges-the tub was large enough for that-to relax a moment. 

"I'm...feeling...a bit better," she said, smiling softly at him.

Adelheid turned down the shower so it wasn’t pounding on them the whole time-though left it on to keep the warm steam moving-before he moved over to crouch down in front of her. He kissed her at first before nuzzling down and kissing her thigh again. Moving to sit instead, his legs behind him, he moved closer to kiss first at her mound several times before gently bringing a hand up to part her slightly; Whip moaned lightly in pleasure as she felt him begin his teasing. He moved to push toward her, his tongue giving her long, intense strokes as her breathing grew heavier. She set her hand on the back of his head, occasionally grabbing it tighter, rubbing it a bit. She still had a fair bit of that early morning sensitivity, and between everything that had gone on yesterday-including their rather emotional confessions-this felt _extra_ good. 

As he settled in to enjoy himself, he didn't think either of them would be in shape for full on sex... but he would _certainly_ make sure that she got some excellent head for awhile. 

Whip slid her leg up onto the side of the bath to give him more access as she kept one of her hands on his head, playing a bit with his wet hair, moaning softly at his actions. She gasped a little louder when she felt his tongue pull back a little to lightly slide around her folds to tease; leaning her head forward again to open her eyes, she watched him a few moments, shivering when she saw his tongue quickly flicker out to tease her clit before he pushed forward again to thrust it inside. He had gotten extremely good at this over the months, as he never passed up the chance to go down on her when they would get intimate time together...and she was _more_ than happy about that. 

He liked how wet he had gotten her already; despite being in the shower, he could tell how slick she was from everything. Thrusting his tongue deep inside of her again and again, he massaged her thigh with his good hand, feeling her grip tighten on his head. If he felt her start to tense up, he would slow down some-he swirled his tongue around her clit for awhile as her breathing became a little uneven. Deciding to stop teasing her too badly, he began to suck harder at her clit as his tongue rubbed against it faster and faster; he heard her gasp rather loudly as she finally came. He felt his chin grow much wetter at that as he rhythmically moved his head with her hips, which she was pushing into him rather hard now. 

Even after she came-and he stayed pressed to her, swallowing all that he could-he did not move-he knew she was sensitive, and judging by the fact he could now feel her nails somewhat on his scalp she was content to let him keep going. The sensitivity almost reached a slight level of pain, but he was making her forget any _other_ pain so she didn’t care. He was being fairly gentle with her this time, given their situation-but over the weeks they had discovered they liked some rougher things. He would use his teeth now and then, lightly to be sure, but enough that Whip would occasionally be left with some thigh marks. 

Which she didn't mind at all. It excited her. 

He kept at this a little while more; gripping her thigh tightly in his large hand, he pushed close to her again, his tongue sliding inside of her, curling and pulling back out, until he managed to feel her almost clamp down on him as she shivered again, feeling some more slickness start to cover his tongue as another low moan escaped her. 

Whip panted, her head against the back wall, as she felt him finally finishing up; his warm mouth sucking gently at her after she came. She cared nothing for any sort of pain right now; she barely even remembered she was injured at this point. Glancing down at him as he pulled away, she saw his mouth was rather soaked. He smirked at her as he licked his lips, causing her to shiver again as he gave her a few more kisses between her legs and leaned into her thigh, his tongue sliding out to tease her lower lips a little more as he lay there. 

She smiled down at him, shivering again, her hand pushing back some of his wet hair. He looked content leaning into her thigh as he was, though she also knew he had to be harder than anything right now. 

“Stand up,” she whispered, leaning close to him to nip a bit at his ear, teasing it a bit with her tongue. 

He did, leaning against the wall; as one may have guessed his manhood was at almost painful levels of attention. Just a few licks between her legs could get him rock hard, and he spent far longer than that down there. 

Whip was careful with his torso, though she was able to slide her hands around his back, rear and thighs easily; she motioned to him to lean down as she kissed him while her hands wandered. One hand slid over to wrap around and begin stroking him; she felt him suck breath in during the kiss as her other hand slid behind his head for a second. Finally pulling away, she slid down, kissing his lower stomach once before gently teasing the tip of his cock with her tongue, already tasting a little bit of the salty flavor. 

Crouching fully in front of him now, she took him deep; his hand slid into her wet hair as the steam kept everything nice in the bathroom. Using her free hand that was not groping his thigh or butt, she teased a bit underneath of him at the base as she continued to suck; as she grasped them, he groaned in pleasure, his eyes widening a bit for a moment. He watched her for a moment; he could see the slight smile on her face as his breathing grew heavier and more ragged. His hips moved forward slightly, in rhythm with her own mouth. 

Slowing down a little to prolong his pleasure a bit, when she saw the look on his face grow a bit pained she picked it back up again; she didn’t want to torment him too badly right now given he almost looked blueballed by the time they started. Sucking faster, she took him as deep as she could; his breaths grew shorter and more audible. She could hear him muttering slightly under his breath, and a small smile was on his face. Feeling him tense up finally, she kept fondling from below as she started to finish him, tasting him quite strongly now. 

He grit his teeth, running his fingers firmly through her hair as she sucked harder at him as he came with a low moan; his body trembled as he had to lean back against the shower wall. She stayed and swallowed, a smile on her face as she heard him panting, with his hand getting more gentle on her head as his orgasm passed. She let him go after a few moments, wiping her mouth with her hand. 

She stood, pausing to kiss his thigh and give it a squeeze with her hands; she slid up to gently lean against him, mindful of any wounds. They couldn’t cuddle like they usually did right now, but he did lean forward to press his forehead to hers for a kiss. They _did_ feel considerably better at this point. 

Endorphins were _wonderful_ natural painkillers, after all.

\--

Having cleaned up after their little distraction-which had worked out rather nicely since they both felt far better than they had in a long time-they finally started to make their way back into the suite proper to fix themselves up again. 

Soon enough, they were freshly disinfected and in clean clothing-not to mention the fact that once they had doubled up on a couple more of the painkillers along with the natural ones they had taken advantage of-the two now lounged in the hotel room, looking over the room service menu. Last night, they didn't think they'd want to touch food again, but this morning-especially after everything-they were starved. Whip had gone downstairs after rebandaging herself with things from her field kit; she had gotten another load of things from the drugstore to fix Adelheid up, as well. 

"You look better," Adelheid said, lounging back on the couch. His shirt was off, and the bandages around his torso and arms were far more professional looking, as Whip was able to take her time this time, carefully wrapping them all. He wore only his jeans otherwise, and looked rather sleepy and incoherent. 

Which was rather adorable to her, since she _knew_ exactly what caused that sort of mindless look. She couldn’t help but sit next to him to curl up quietly for awhile, as they usually would-now that they were all fixed up. He slid an arm gently around her to relax.

Even after some time had passed, she had a fair share of afterglow; given what she had gone through yesterday she was even fairly energetic at this moment, though she supposed that was more _his_ fault. "Let's eat first and then sort out the flight. We'll be back in good time, I think. I’ll stay there, too," she added.

He nodded, his eyes closed and a tiny smile on his face. “I can get it booked and get us out of here within a few hours. Don’t worry.” He paused. “I do need to find out what happened, though. I just dunno how hard I can think right now,” he said, reaching out gently for her stomach to rub it, as if to say that was _her_ fault. 

Grinning for a minute at that, she started to think. “What did you do before you left? Try to backtrack.” 

Sliding his good hand behind his head-his more injured one resting on one of his legs-he closed his eyes. “Told Henrik to book the flight. After poking around a few things, I thought there might be a few people here I could meet with.”

“Does Henrik always book them?”

“He actually passed it to Johan-I mean it all gets done anyway.” 

“So Johan booked our flight and the hotel and everything?”

“Yeah.” He looked at her. “What are you wondering?”

Whip frowned as she continued to look over the menu, about to dial in through the app to order the breakfast cart to be taken right up to their door. “When did you get the message about the meeting in the restaurant?”

“After we were settled in here,” he said. “Happened pretty fast. I let them know I got here and that was it.” He sat up looking at her, his brow furrowing slightly. “The people there were awfully...ready for us. And...remember, they weren’t my father’s enemies. They worked with him. I had cut ties because they were into stuff I wanted nothing to do with.”

“Yeah...I heard some of the, ahh, discussion there, as it were.”

“He didn’t really _like_ anyone, but he _did_ know how to work with people who had mutual interests, at least.” He folded his arms before cringing. “Something else bothered me...they... _knew_ things. How to get to me.” He shook his head. “They knew how to get under my skin. What I...hated.” He rubbed his eyes with his fingers for a moment before folding his arms again, seemingly staring at the carpet as he scuffed it a bit with his foot.

Whip thought as well for a moment-she dialed downstairs to put in the order for the food while she did this-before coming to a sinking revelation; judging by the troubled look on his face, he may have come to a similar one. “How long has Johan worked for your family?”

“Awhile,” he said. “Not as long as Henrik, but…” he trailed off, getting a darker look on his face. 

“Oh...no,” she said. “You think…”

“I...yes. I probably _should_ have seen it sooner, damnit, but...well, it wasn’t obvious.” He scratched his head; his hair was still damp from the shower. “Johan had always been distant after my father died; one thing over the years he had always tried to push is getting vengeance. Rose was always keen on that too, of course...but with her, I can understand. She is four years younger than me, and he died when she was in a very impressionable phase.” He shifted uncomfortably. “As evil as he was, he was still ‘dad’ to her. He never spent much time with me. I knew what he was, and I had spent my entire life being compared to him...despite her having his ambition. But he knew I had...something, the power, I guess, so he had me trained to kill.”

Whip just sat quietly, sitting next to him, curling her legs underneath. She took his hand. 

“You know most of the story by now. But Johan was always a bit closer to him. He pushed me to get revenge. He questioned my pulling out of certain deals, though I remember he always worded it in a way that I didn’t quite catch on. And now, after all this time, I see why.” He sighed deeply. “He had been poking around Rose more often. I wonder if he’s trying to push her more instead and he saw this as a chance to try to take me out of the picture.” He sneered, making a fist. “He probably glanced at some of the stuff I was working on while I was out and about and tried to set this up with some of dad’s old partners. Looks like I might have to do a bit of a purge when we get back,” he said, his voice threatening. 

Whip stroked the side of his face. 

“ _Damnit!_ ” Adelheid growled, putting his head in his hand. “I’m an idiot. I tried to find this NESTS info and ended up with a bunch of enemies down our throat, since I missed what was right in front of my goddamn face.”

Whip moved close to him, bringing his head around to look at hers. “Adelheid. You know how hard some of that information is to find? We had our entire unit investigating NESTS _before_ it was a smoking crater. The _government_ called off the investigation because they deemed it useless.” She closed her eyes and smiled a moment before she looked back at him. “You spent so much time trying to help…” 

“I told you...I can fight, I can deal...and I can fight.” Adelheid was a well-educated young man, but he had lived a fairly sheltered life of battle and being groomed to be the right hand man of his father until his demise, when he was forced immediately into the patriarch spot, when he _then_ had to care for his little sister as well as try to clean up the million and one messes his father left behind. And that was even before he started to clean up the family business. “And now I may have a traitor in my household.” He sighed deeply, trying to hold back his anger at the situation. 

“For what it’s worth...we had no idea about him, either. He was...well hidden it seems. If it is in fact true.”

“Oh, I think it is,” Adelheid grumped. “I _should_ have seen it. He hid it damn well, but after my father was killed, there was always something...a little off about him. I thought he had been traumatized by something he did.” He made a fist. “He was probably waiting for a time like this to strike. Why now? I don’t know, but something made him move.” He looked at her, his eyes narrowing. “I think I’m going to have a _little chat_ with him when we get back.”

She rested her head on his, sliding her arms around it. “We will. Don’t worry.” Pulling back to look at him, she smiled softly before leaning back forward to hold him. Hearing him breathing evenly...he was trying to keep his cool, she could tell. He was silent. She could almost feel the rage coming off of him, though she let him settle himself down, helping him along by simply gently stroking his hair. 

After what felt like a long stretch of silence, he leaned back, smiling softly at her and touching her face gently with the backs of his fingers. She chuckled softly, finally. 

“Still hungry?” she asked. 

He looked down...but after his stomach rumbled seemingly in answer, he had to smirk. “I guess so,” he said, finally chuckling. He opened and closed his injured hand gently; he was glad he could flex it just fine, albeit slowly. “I’ll save my incoherent, murderous rage for when I pull him aside when we get back.”

“When _we_ pull him aside.”

He looked over at her. “Want to team up again _already_?” 

“Maybe,” she said, sitting next to him to lean against him again. 

Adelheid sighed deeply again. “I am glad you like trouble, since I guess I’m a source of a lot of it.” 

“I’ll take it,” she said, glad to see that he was doing a rather impressive job of holding back his temper at the moment. She _almost_ felt bad for the traitorous servant, who was going to be getting all of it when Adelheid decided to let it loose. 

_Almost._

He smiled at her words. “At least you’ll never be bored.” He held her to him again. It was easier now that they were properly bandaged. 

There was a knock at the door a short time later. 

“C’mon. Let’s eat and get out of here to settle things,” she said, getting up. 

“I will. I need to make one call first,” he said, dialing Henrik. The old man answered almost immediately. 

“Master Adelheid?” he said. 

“Hi, Henrik. Look. We need to talk about a few things. First, I need a private flight set up. Either major airport, it doesn’t matter.”

“Y...yes, of course, sir. But is-”

Cutting him off, Adelheid continued. “It _will_ be. But...I’ll need another favor from you…and I need this one to stay between us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well well. Looks like some little bits of info came out. (Also it turns out that this story is going four chapters instead...I think the final chapter needs to be its own, or will work out much better as its own, in any case.) Cuddling, oral sex, betrayal of a member of the house, all typical things with these two. 
> 
> As for Adelheid and Whip, I mean...it is true that endorphins are wonderful painkillers, is it not? And, even though regular sex may have been a little too awkward at the moment in their situation, there’s plenty of other things they can do. Which they did. Since they’re like that, heh. 
> 
> That said; it may question how 'wow they seemed to recover from the night before well.' I think they didn't fully recover, but were almost desperate for something...nice after it. Which given how much they like to be physically close to each other, it just came out in the shower. After everything that happened, and especially that love confession the day before, sort of got them very much just needing to be with each other.


	4. Chapter 4

The flight had gone by smoothly and without a hitch. Still not having fully recovered from the jetlag from their trip over the first time, they had mostly slept on the way back; Henrik had booked the flight for that evening, and they had arrived back in Germany early the next morning. Snow greeted them upon landing as well; they were actually somewhat happy to see it now that they weren't trying to stumble back to a hotel in the dark while injured, covered in blood, and in damp clothing. 

Whip, having been rather impressed by the private jet, wished she had been in a better state to enjoy the amenities of the flight. Adelheid had told the servant to leave them alone, and they had simply retired to the giant fold-out bed, curled up with each other after dinner. While there was all manner of fancy food waiting for them on the plane, the two of them had bought a giant bag of fast food to stuff down instead, taking advantage of their last day of vacation. While some people may have used vacation to eat fancier, they used theirs to do the opposite. She was sort of shocked at how many burgers Adelheid could put away. 

They _did_ enjoy a bottle of fine wine on the way back, at least. 

Upon landing, Henrik had driven the big car for them; Adelheid, who normally liked driving himself, was fine to get picked up this time. They had gotten giant cups of coffee from one of the airport kiosks to perk up afterward; the night’s sleep they had, though, had mostly re-adjusted them. It was rather comfortable, all told. 

“Sir,” Henrik said, bowing. “I have taken care of matters as you asked. Quietly, of course. He will be awaiting you.”

“Thank you,” he said. Climbing in to sit next to Whip, he settled back, his longcoat dusted with snow. He brushed some out of her hair as she sat next to him, causing her to chuckle. He smiled at her for a moment, before getting a more serious look on his face. “I guess we’ll deal with things as soon as possible,” he said. 

Whip nodded. “We do our bandages first, though. That’s important.”

“I’ll get our medics to handle them this time.”

“Yes,” she said. “I’m not a professional. I’d feel better once we got out of my field dressings.” 

Adelheid sat back in the seat, propping his large boot up on the middle rest and sliding one hand behind his head as he took another swallow of coffee. “I am so tired,” he told her, looking over. The look on his face told her he wasn’t talking about physical exhaustion so much as he was everything that had gone on the past three days. 

She nodded knowingly, reaching over to brush back some of his hair. “Do you think things will ever be normal?”

“Nah,” he said, snorting laughter. 

Whip shook her head-a slight smile on her face, as she saw that Adelheid had a small, resigned smile as well-as she settled back for the hour and a half ride back to the Sky Noah. 

\--

Having been taken care of by the medics on hand-Adelheid checking in with Rose, who was busy with a few of her own guests that Adelheid did not recognize, though she was cordial, even almost warm to him, glad that he was not injured too badly-they had decided to go take care of the necessary business with Johan. They had both redressed; Adelheid having donned his rather impressive looking black longcoat again, which she thought gave him the look of someone who was, indeed, the boss of everything here...while looking markedly different than his father. 

The black collar he had added to the outfit was a nice touch, she thought. 

“Where is he?” he asked Henrik. 

“In the lower chambers, sir. As you asked.” 

Adelheid nodded grimly. 

Whip looked at him questioningly. “Is that some sort of weird interrogation room?” To this day, she wasn’t sure of what _every single_ room of this place was used for, as she hadn’t bothered asking.

“It’s where dad used to keep a bunch of his statues. The 'less worthy' ones.” She could hear the emphasis on the quotes.

“Oooh…” she shuddered. 

“I got rid of them all long ago. But...he probably knows something is up.”

“I guess so…” she trailed off, walking next to him. She was also sort of looking forward to seeing Johan again...in a way. She never much spoke to him-she knew his face, as she did all the servants-but she would _definitely_ be having a few words with him today. 

“Master Adelheid,” Henrik said, before they entered. 

“Yes?”

“I am deeply sorry that I did not catch onto Johan’s treachery. As the head of them, I feel responsible.”

He shook his head. “No one knew, Henrik. Not me, not even Seirah, Heidern, or any of them, who have all sorts of intelligence.”

“Still, sir. I went through to go speak with others. I will be vetting the rest very closely for awhile.”

Adelheid simply nodded, the look on his face about all business. “Thank you, Henrik.” He opened the door.

Standing there was Johan, who simply glared at the three of them defiantly. 'The lower chambers' at this point was a near empty room, with the same steel walls and floor as much of the rest of the side rooms of the Sky Noah. There were indeed some areas at the side where there may have been... _things_ on display at some point in time, but they were empty, now. 

They looked back at him, all of them looking rather unhappy. Johan knew what this room had been used for, and he knew that his game was up, so to speak. Still, he would see what he could do; he was fairly good with words, after all. He _did_ , however, start to get a touch nervous, though he managed to hide it. 

Adelheid’s glare was enough to terrify almost anyone right now; Whip nonchalantly started to fiddle with her Desert Eagle. Henrik-also rather upset at this turn of events-looked the other man in silence for some time. Johan was the first to speak.

“I should have known, Henrik, when you led me down here, that you knew something.”

“Your actions are... _unbecoming_ of the young master, Johan. To think, all of this time, he still kept you on. I think I will leave you to discuss things in... _private_ with Master Adelheid and Lady Seirah,” he said...the two noticing that he had added Whip’s name to his threats. He bowed and turned around. Stopping for a moment, he turned back to look at Adel. “I will take care of things when you are finished. Do not worry.” He closed the door. 

“You…” Adelheid started. Before he could continue, Whip span her Desert Eagle once before uncurling Voodoo and _cracking_ the man across the face with it, sending him back several steps and over onto his rear end. 

“W...Wha?! _You_!” the man yelled, blood oozing from the slice that had appeared across his cheek. 

“How _dare_ you,” Whip exclaimed. “How long has he kept you on? Kept you in luxury?” She cracked him again, going back the other way; another line of blood appearing from his face to the steel floor. “He would overlook when you would pressure him into doing things he didn't want to. He's taken advice from you that he didn't necessarily want to, thinking you had his family's best interests in mind. And you _still_ betray him? He could have _crushed_ anyone with even a _shred_ of sympathy toward his father on the spot, but he _didn’t_. Any of you that were loyal to him, he gave a second chance to. Not all took it, but you did. Or so he thought.” She stepped forward, spinning the gun in her hand. 

Johan looked over at Adelheid, both angry and clearly feeling like he bit off just a little _too_ much with this. He thought that maybe an entire syndicate’s worth of people would have been enough to deal with the two of them, but he really had _no_ idea what he was capable of...let alone the two of them together.

Adelheid simply shrugged and stepped back as he watched Whip give him a solid _crack_ with the butt of the Desert Eagle. Now the servant tumbled over, looking a little more scared at the situation. He kept it together, though, not wanting to give them the satisfaction. 

“How much did they pay you?” Whip asked. 

“Nothing particularly impressive,” he said. “Just some extra.” He sat up, wiping some of the blood off of his head that had appeared from the subsequent crack with the butt of the large handgun; Whip didn’t want to knock him senseless, so it was fairly half hearted. He was still bleeding from a few wounds by this point. Glaring again at Adelheid, he shook his head.

“Kid, you could have led the family into greatness. You have so much power...you’re already better than your father was when he was your age. You were able to adapt his moves into your own when you were but a pup.” He sneered. “He took the power because he lost that one fight. You _know_ that.” His sneer turned into a snarl. “You, on the other hand, were _born_ with it! But I can’t tell if you’re a beast like him or a coward like his brother who walked away, the way you’re letting your little _piece_ here handle your business.”

Adelheid glowered at that comment, stomping forward once; Whip heard the steel floor _creak_ under the force...and judging by the way he paled, so did Johan. But before Adel could speak, she put a reassuring hand on his arm for a moment and nodded once. He closed his eyes, nodding back to her. 

“I see you still have it in you,” the servant said, managing to compose himself. “I see it in your eyes. I see it when you _do_ kill. What a goddamn waste. You could have been even more like your old man, and you gave it up.” He spat some blood out in the pair’s direction. “In any case, I know my time is done here. Just have your little... _distraction_ put a bullet in me and end it.” The way he snarled the word out, it was clear what he was implying. 

Whip shook her head; his words did nothing to her as she had been through _far_ worse than a few crass insults coming from a desperate man. She curled Voodoo around the treacherous servants neck, pulling him to the ground and tugging it a few times...toward Adelheid. She then motioned to him after dropping the handle.

"That’s up to Adelheid. You _did_ try to have us both killed, but it was _he_ who you truly betrayed.” She bent over for a moment to look directly at him, her hands on her knees as he lay there on his stomach, propping himself up a bit. “A big difference between us, though...is that he doesn’t much care for firearms…unfortunately for you." She leaned a bit closer. "But I think you know that." She stood to walk away, going to lean on the wall. Johan looked up at the large young man, and his bravado fell off almost immediately. 

In fact, his face became contorted in fear. 

Adelheid-a coldly vicious look in his eyes-walked heavily over to the man on the ground, turning him over onto his back with his huge boot. While Whip could not see his face, she had a feeling she knew _exactly_ what the servant was staring at. Her lover’s brutal half was generally something she wouldn’t wish on anyone, but she wasn’t feeling particularly generous at this moment. 

In the end, Johan would regret pulling out Adelheid Bernstein's darker side for as long as he lived. 

Which, to be fair, was only for perhaps another couple of minutes. 

\----

Adelheid stood outside on the Sky Noah's balcony, a glass of whiskey on the rocks in his hand this time. He needed something stronger than the wine. Whip was inside, examining a few things, sort of seeing if they missed anything. Thankfully, they did not seem to. 

Henrik had been busy taking care of the... _remnants_ of the little problem in the chambers below. He promised himself to make sure his longtime butler ended up with a rather large bonus for everything he had done for him the past few days.

A knock appeared at the door behind him. Opening it, he stepped back, bowing.

"Commander Heidern," he said. 

Heidern tipped his hat at the young man. "Hello. Mind if I join you?"

"Of course not. Want anything to drink?" 

"I'm fine, thanks." He walked next to the young man as they looked out over the snowy fields. "Feeling alright?"

He nodded. "Sore. But I'm alright. I was more concerned about Seirah."

Heidern smiled at that. "She is a soldier. She'll be fine, too." _He thinks more about her than himself_. 

"I know. She had my back the entire time." He smiled softly, taking a drink. He swirled the ice in the glass. “I guess you know what happened.” 

“I do,” he said, sighing. “We didn’t know, either. I am sorry this happened.”

Adelheid shook his head. “What’s another one?” he asked. “Though I wouldn’t have expected one in my own house. Still, I suppose he was good at hiding his loyalty. After my father died, there were a small handful who were still loyal to him. A couple left. Some attacked. Then things were quiet for some years. He seemed to wait. Why he waited so long, I’ll never know.” 

Heidern nodded. “He may have thought he could sway you.”

“He did try to convince me a few times to take certain deals and convince me to get revenge on others. I suppose I should have been suspicious.”

“We don’t catch everything. I had someone go undercover in my group during the NESTS incident. I had to dispatch him, too.” 

Adelheid didn’t say anything. He suspected he knew where this was going. He knew Heidern’s concern with him-not that he blamed him at all for it, of course. 

“Just be careful,” Heidern said. He worried about the young man sometimes. As he got to know him more, he trusted him. He could see how gently he treated Seirah. 

It was the power passed onto him he didn’t trust, a power he was all too familiar with. 

“I couldn’t let him live. He’d have been a danger to my entire household.” 

“I know. Traitors need to be dealt with. I understand that all too well.” He paused. He had gotten the impression after seeing Henrik and a couple of the others that Adelheid was _very_ nasty in doling out his revenge down in that room. 

“He tried to have me killed. He tried to have Seirah killed.” He opened and closed his fist. “For all I know he was dealing with Those from the Past or something.” 

“Did your sister know?” 

“She did not know about his treachery, no. But she also seemed a bit distant in general, as usual. I spoke to her after he was dealt with, though. She had little remorse.” _That’s normal for her these days._

Heidern leaned against the wall as he looked out over the field; the snow had started to fall again. The long coats of the two men blew in the wind. “How bad was it over in the US?”

“Bad,” he said. He paused, debating whether or not he wanted to say more, but he decided to. “When one...Seirah’s bad injury near her neck...I...lost track of myself. There was a bit of a blank during it. Afterward…” he trailed off. “I got control quickly, though.” 

“Were you completely…”

“No. I half knew what I was doing.” 

Heidern nodded. “Again...just be careful. If you feel things ever start to get out of control, do not be afraid to tell me. I can try to help.” 

Adelheid smiled, looking out over the field and taking another drink. “Thank you.” He was silent for a few more moments. He always got a bit uncomfortable here; having to talk about that side of himself with Heidern did that to him. Mostly because he knew what his family’s evil half had done to him, and this _still_ made him feel guilty. “Seirah...she calmed me.” 

Heidern smiled softly at that, looking down. While he did not at all pry into either of them about this, he remembered what it was like to love someone dearly. 

Looking more than a bit guilty now, he shook his head and sipped his glass again. "I guess this is just my destiny at this point. I refuse to be like him. But I don't think I can ever run."

"No need. Running can be worse, I think."

"Yeah. If they attack me, they attack me. I'll deal with them as they come." He looked back out, holding out his hand as he caught a few errant snowflakes. 

Heidern walked forward to put a reassuring hand on the young man's shoulder. He never did truly get a chance to live how he wanted. Looking him up and down, he noticed how he had adopted a much more confident air; while Adelheid had never been a pushover, he carried himself differently over the past months. It was not a bad change. It felt like he was successfully pushing his way out of his father's dark shadow. Slowly, but surely. _He may never escape it,_ Heidern thought, _but he is his own man who does what is necessary to protect what means the most to him._

They stood in silence awhile more, when Adel looked back down at his glass.

“You sure you don’t want any?” he asked, a tiny smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. 

Heidern chuckled. “Well...if you insist. I think one is fine.” He stepped aside as Adelheid walked back into the main room to pour a glass of the whiskey for the commander. Whip was gone at the moment.

She returned after some time, as the two were sitting around the room relaxing; they had not spoken much more, but there was a definite camaraderie there between the two. “Oh! Is something wrong?” she asked.

Heidern shook his head. “I was just leaving,” he said, a smile on his face. He grabbed the hat he had taken off, placing it back onto his combed-back brown hair. He finished his drink; this whiskey was very fine indeed, and he wondered if he had anything as old in his collection. He nodded toward Adelheid in thanks before turning toward Whip. “Enjoy the rest of your time off, Seirah,” he said, leaving the two behind as he shut the door, feeling better about things now. 

Adelheid shrugged. “Everything’s fine. He was just...you know.”

She nodded, walking over to him to slide her arms around his neck as he sat there. He immediately relaxed; after the past four days, relaxation should have been _nearly_ impossible, but she had that effect on him. “Come to the couch,” she said, nuzzling his head.

He finished his glass of whiskey, placing it down and following her; immediately upon reaching it he pulled her close, meeting her in a kiss. After a few moments it broke, and he settled back. She sat across him, straddling his waist, mindful of their injuries which now felt a little better yet after being rebandaged by the professionals on the Sky Noah. His hand ran over to gently stroke her stomach. 

“Maybe we’ll get a chance to go back there with less excitement.” 

“Yeah...I think we’ve seen enough excitement for the year.” She laughed softly, leaning over him, looking him in the eyes, placing her hands on either side of his head. She kissed him again; he returned it deeply, keeping her lip in his mouth a moment as she pulled away. She nuzzled up to his neck, stroking back some of his hair. “You want to go out later? Or stay around here?” 

“Let me rest first. Then we’ll see. He looked at her again, kissing her once more. “Wake me up if anything exciting happens again.” 

_Yeah, we’ll be just fine, I think_ , she thought with a wry amusement as she decided to drift off for awhile herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh, a finale to the little adventure story. Adelheid was not happy at his servant, lol. I decided to leave that scene up to the imagination, but I’m sure one can imagine what happens when his dark side comes out…(not that it’s a secret, as we’ve seen it before, but yeah.) Needless to say, this one caused him few regrets. Between putting their lives in danger and, well, basically betraying him for what may have been more than a couple years now, he sort of deserved that terrible payback. He more regret he didn’t see it sooner and deal with him earlier. 
> 
> He’s a good boy. He was just born with a dark side that needs feeding once in awhile. Better to feed it with nasty individuals. 
> 
> Heidern speaking of the time with the traitor-he was of course talking about Ling; he was a mercenary leader back during the NESTS saga and a contact of Heidern. Zero had killed him and impersonated him-putting a clone in his place. Heidern killed the clone after he was uncovered. I think the fact he knows about Adelheid and Seirah-and supports them-is rather nice, though he does not really get involved and leaves them to their devices. 
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed this longer fic! This one featured a little bit of everything, I know-fights, injury, angst, smut, humor, the whole nine. The next time I come back with more of these two will probably be more one-shot deals of varied types, but we’ll see where the inspiration takes me. 
> 
> (“They were on a private plane and didn’t DO anything?” Who's to say they aren’t ALREADY part of the mile-high club? I mean Adelheid lives on an airship-fortress…)

**Author's Note:**

> So doing some research, bone was rated on a scale of 5 on the Moh’s Hardness scale; granite is made up of quartz and feldspar, which is a hardness rating of 7 and 6 respectively. Adelheid, while not a scholar, is pretty well educated and he’d probably particularly know how to break things. He probably spends his time trying to pulverize harder and harder things with his legs for training. 
> 
> Again a little headcanoning here. Especially with the way I sort of mix the manhua and game Adelheid together with what I know, while Adelheid is absolutely the ‘good one’ of the family, both noble and a good sport, I never imagined him as a boy scout(when he’s not in a music-induced berserk rage, when he’s in that watch out), and he *does* enjoy fighting in the canon, challenging people. He does not believe in ‘survival of the fittest’ like his father did. But he’s got some attitude(some of his win phrases-the ones even said by him, not his sister-have a definite streak of attitude to them, for example), and I like to imagine one of his flaws is violently fighting against his past...by doing things like dispatching his family’s old just-as-evil partners and/or rivals, and this is where I picture that shred of Orochi power given to his father and passed on comes out in him. One of his quotes to Kim was ‘Justice is just a cloak in which violence hides.’ That family can’t live peacefully, having had Rugal as a patriarch forever. I imagine he has to do his fair share of fighting for his life in the canon. 
> 
> He also really hates being compared to his old man(as was shown in the comic where Iori-who was being *beaten* by Adelheid-compared the brutality of his fighting to his old man, and that made him angry and made him make mistakes), so that doesn’t help his temper very much, I am sure.


End file.
